Smack in NY Giants country, a New Jersey monument to Green Bay Packers great Vince Lombardi

In shadow of New York Giants' home, a tribute to Vince LombardiLedger Live for January 12, 2012 - Ledger Live with Brian Donohue. With the New York Giants' NFL playoff game against the Green Bay Packers days away, visitors to the New Jersey Turnpike's Vince Lombardi Service Area stop to appreciate the irony of a monument to a great Packer so close to the Giants' home stadium. Or not.

I always get philosophical when a big Giants game looms. I think about past big games I've watched with family and friends, looking back at them like milestones in my own life. There's the 2008 NFC Championship game I watched with my brother-in-law as his dad lay dying in an upstairs bedroom, the family taking turns at his bedside. The joyful leap into my father's arms as Joe Danelo's field goal soared through the uprights and the Giants beat Dallas to go to the playoffs in 1981. It goes on and on.

My mind wanders off, too, when I'm driving across New Jersey. There's lots of weirdness out there to ponder.

For example, the New Jersey Turnpike's long ago decision to name service areas after famous New Jersey icons has always been a curious one to me. They are places named for people to honor their spectacular achievements. Yet they are places where nothing spectacular will ever occur, where masses groggy from hard travel stumble through the most mundane pursuits: napping in cars, scarfing down bad food, hitting the john.

As the great writer Calvin Trillin once wrote: 'In my constant search for an honor I might decline, I have decided that I don't want a service area on the New Jersey Turnpike named after me. For instance, I could imagine friends of mine going miles out of their way to stop at my service area so they could complain about the staleness of my hamburger buns."

On today's Ledger Live, both my streams of consciousness collide.

The Giants face the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs Sunday. The Packers, whose legendary coach, Vince Lombardi has his own rest area in the shadow of the Giants home. So, naturally, it's time for a proper visit to the Vince Lombardi Service Area to see what kind of homage the great coach is really receiving. Enjoy the video. And go Giants!